Arnold & Porter LLP announced today that Jeffrey J. Hessekiel has joined its FDA/Healthcare practice group as senior counsel in its San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices.

During a 10-year career as a senior executive at Gilead Sciences, Inc., Mr. Hessekiel oversaw diverse legal matters ranging from M&A and licensing transactions to litigation management, regulatory matters, investigations, government affairs and SEC reporting. He was responsible for the design and management of company-wide compliance, ethics and risk management programs. Mr. Hessekiel also served as the company’s vice president of commercial legal affairs and litigation. As acting general counsel for Achaogen, Mr. Hessekiel helped the emerging venture-backed biopharmaceutical company continue its quest for the funding and regulatory approval of innovative new antibiotics as well as working through challenging issues connected with the company’s government contracts. In earlier law firm positions, Mr. Hessekiel also practiced both litigation and corporate law, where his clients included a variety of emerging growth and public companies.

“We are delighted to have a veteran life sciences attorney like Jeff join our practice here,” said Douglas A. Winthrop, co-Responsible Partner of the firm’s Northern California offices. “Jeff’s work in managing risk management programs and litigation for life sciences firms will help us address an area of great interest to our West Coast life sciences clients.”

“Our FDA & health care practice has long been committed to its many clients in California, but Jeff will add a critical dimension to our practice there given his deep in house experience working on the broad range of regulatory and compliance challenges faced by the West Coast biopharma and medical device community,” said Daniel A. Kracov, head of the firm’s FDA & health care practice group.

As Gilead’s Chief Officer of Corporate Compliance & Quality, Mr. Hessekiel oversaw consolidation of the company’s global compliance team, corporate quality managers, and internal audit group within an enterprise risk management framework. Additionally, he was responsible for managing the company’s Ethics and Senior Risk Committees. Mr. Hessekiel’s litigation team successfully prosecuted or defended avariety of US and international disputes, including US DOJ investigations; securities class action and derivative lawsuits. He also played a lead role in resolving worldwide licensing disputes, and has negotiated pharmaceutical licensing transactions and acquisitions.

Mr. Hessekiel earned his J.D. cum laude from George Washington University School of Law.

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